


Strangeness and Charm

by Lirillith



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, Festivals, Fluff, Pets, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7816153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A summer festival gives Sonia the perfect chance to get to know one of her classmates.  And his hamsters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangeness and Charm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvilMuffins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/gifts).



> That summer-festival art in the ending sequence was just irresistible -- I hope you enjoy, EvilMuffins!

Sonia had been waiting all her life for an experience like this. She wasn't just attending a summer matsuri, she was doing so in a yukata and geta! She'd had takoyaki, and now she was finishing off a traditional candied apple!

She was terribly bored.

"Nanami?" she asked hopefully, but her companion didn't appear even to hear her. That was the downside to her friend's talent; when she went into game mode, Nanami's preternatural focus was unbreakable. And apparently, ring-toss games counted. 

"What is it, Sonia?" Souda asked hopefully. 

"Oh, it's nothing," she lied, and smiled blandly at him. The whole class was on this outing. Attaching herself to Nanami had been the least awkward way of making sure she wasn't alone with him, but with Nanami locked onto a target, they were effectively alone together anyway. Which meant that she'd had to turn down his repeated offers to buy her a chocolate covered banana, multiple attempts to pay for her food, and suggestions of winning her stuffed animals at some of the carnival games. The atmosphere was altogether too date-like.

The rest of the class had split up happily. Koizumi and Saionji, Pekoyama and Kuzuryuu... there were a few loners, like Komaeda, and... "Oh! The Forbidden One!" 

"What about him?" Souda grumbled. 

That was when Nanami looked up. "He doesn't seem to be having much fun, does he?"

He appeared, if anything, to be posing, hands tucked into his sleeves, brooding out over the festival from the shrine stairs. Sonia had spent a significant portion of her life posing, for official portraits, for photos at family weddings (family involved a number of European aristocrats, after all) and simply because the press had followed her junior high class to the beach or her family on a ski trip. Posing was often quite boring, too. 

"Souda," she said, very seriously. He perked up immediately. "Will you do me a favor?"

"Of course! Anything you want!"

"Will you find a rubbish receptacle for this?" She held up the stick from her candied apple. His face fell, but then he rallied.

"Of course I will! It's an honor!" He actually bowed as he held out both hands for it. She'd been intending just to hand him the part that wasn't sticky, but if he was going to be like that about it... She deposited the stick into his hands.

"I'll be back before you know I'm gone!" he exclaimed, and dashed off, weaving between groups and couples.

"Thank you!" she called after him, then turned back to Nanami, who was smiling faintly.

"I'm going to go talk to him," she said, and took off, as fast as her geta would carry her -- so, not terribly fast, but hopefully quickly enough to get her well away before Souda could return. Perhaps it was unkind to take advantage of him that way, but it was all so awkward. At her old school in Switzerland she'd have known how to handle the situation gracefully, but Japan was very different. She didn't know whether directness would be a faux pas or exactly what was required, and all she could do was be polite and keep her distance.

Her geta made a significant racket on the shrine's stone steps, but Tanaka had no reaction to her presence until she spoke up. "Good evening, Forbidden One-san!" 

"Madam Himalayan. Your courage in approaching me is impressive."

"Himalayan? Novoselic is actually much closer to the Alps -- oh, you mean the cat!" They were very pretty cats, if memory served. She wasn't quite sure why he'd associated her with them, though. "Forbidden One-san, are you enjoying the festival?"

"My Dark Devas shall soon desire to feed," he said. "Until then, we watch, and we wait."

He was looking over her head, toward the festival crowds. She turned to do the same, half-expecting to see Souda on his way towards them. But he seemed to have been scooped up by Ibuki — the one classmate Sonia couldn't help identifying by first name, or, well, her given name — and added to her group, along with Mitarai and Tsumiki. 

That was good to see on several points. For one thing, it meant that poor Tsumiki wasn't at the mercy of Saionji. It also meant that Souda wasn't going to be able to extract himself easily, and might not wish to. He seemed to enjoy Ibuki's company, for the most part. Though at the moment, he appeared to be trying to argue with her, while Ibuki laughed heartily.

But Sonia had seen him talking with Ibuki, and Nanami, from a distance, and she'd heard things from Nanami. They had real conversations, not just awkward flattery. It might be nice to have a real conversation with him, for a change. He seemed to be a nice young man, a bit obsessive about his own interests just like all of their classmates; interesting, and worth getting to know, in other words. When he was with anyone other than Sonia.

Then again, Tanaka the Forbidden One strove to create the impression that he was the very opposite of a nice young man, and Sonia had been interested in him from the start. It was partly that he was clearly interested in the occult, just like she was, and he made no attempt at hiding it to seem normal. But partly, too, she'd seen him with animals — not just the hamsters, there was that lost dog he'd adopted and rehomed, and he was feeding a feral cat colony on the school grounds — and he wasn't terribly good at hiding his kind heart. Though he'd probably deny it to his dying breath.

"It's very peaceful here somehow," she said. It was; although the lights and noise and bustle of the festival weren't far from them, it was quiet and mostly dark on the steps, and she could hear the whining of some kind of insects, crickets or cicadas, from the trees that surrounded the path. "I can see why you slipped away from the crowd. Am I disturbing you?" 

She looked back at him on the question, and saw him shake his head. "Your presence is acceptable to my Dark Devas. They sense the power within you, though you yourself are unaware of it."

"Oh! That's exciting. I really was unaware of it. I've always been a fan of the occult, but I never thought of myself as having any power."

"When awakened, you will be a _formidable_ opponent! We have foreseen it!" He extracted his hands from his sleeves, a hamster in each hand — another pose, which she felt certain had to have come from some kind of manga. 

"I hope we won't be opponents! We're classmates, after all. I hope we can be friends." She gave him the kind of smile that she didn't dare use on Souda for fear of giving him false hope. "Maybe you can help teach me?"

He deposited one of the hamsters on his head, and tugged his scarf a bit higher over his mouth and nose. It was hard to tell in the half-light, but she thought he might be blushing. "I could indeed help to guide you in your emerging powers, if you wish it."

"Definitely!" She clapped her hands together in her excitement, then bowed. "I'll look forward to it!"

"Indeed," he mumbled. She watched him put the other hamster on his shoulder. "I believe the Dark Devas now desire to feed."

"That's good, because so do I," she said. There had been a number of delicious-looking food stands, and without Souda angling to either feed her or have her feed him, everything seemed much more appetizing. "Shall we go, Forbidden One-san? Or should I call you Sensei?"

He hadn't emerged from his scarf; if anything, he shrunk further inside it, turtle-like. "Perhaps not Sensei, then," she said.

"Such titles must be earned," he mumbled. "Perhaps when you have learned more, but for now..."

"It's a pity your name is still forbidden," she said. She was actually very curious about his given name, but it was rude to ask when he specifically didn't want it used. 

"Soon, when the witches' Sabbath is upon us, the night the souls of the dead walk among us, I shall overcome the seal upon my name and reclaim the power that is rightfully mine!" 

"That's wonderful!" She clasped her hands together again. "So on Halloween? Or Samhain, I suppose. That's only a few months!" Also wonderful was the fact that he'd emerged from his scarf and gone back to intoning everything dramatically. "Shall we go, then? I wanted to try a skewered squid! Though I suppose the Dark Devas wouldn't eat that... or would they? Are they omnivorous?"

"To a degree, but at this moment, they desire the flesh of the candy-coated fruit of temptation."

"Once you've eaten the candy coating, yes?"

"Naturally!"

 

Sonia's squid came first, and then the apple. She nibbled on the tentacles, watching Tanaka out of the corner of her eye; she felt a fizzy, bubbling excitement, happiness that they were getting along so well, but worry, too, that she might be misreading something, or imposing on him. But he didn't seem upset, and he wasn't exactly shy with the dramatic threats when Saionji or Komaeda got on his nerves. He mostly seemed concerned with trying to look dignified while gnawing on a candied apple.

"Do you think the hamsters could eat corn?" she asked, eyeing the grill of nearby stand. "But I suppose if it's seasoned at all, or buttered..."

"A taste test would be necessary," he said gravely. "While these mortal forms of theirs are merely a facade, they must be maintained and carefully nurtured as surely as if they were indeed ordinary hamsters."

Oh. Perhaps she ought to start calling them Devas. "It was just a thought. I suppose I should finish my squid first."

"A _fine_ thought," he said, to her surprise. "Your powers extend to insight into my familiars and their diets. Which familiars have you tamed for your own?"

"Have you heard of the Novoselic Mountain Dog? My family has always raised them, and when I was six I got a puppy of my own. She’s getting quite old for such a large dog now, though."

"Indeed..." One of the hamsters, the orange-y one with the white spots, was emerging from his scarf, and he offered it a sliver of apple. "The lamentable fate of all those who seek the company of wild beasts is to outlive their companions. Do you have any of her descendants?"

"I'm afraid I was away at school when she had her last litter, so I don't." This had all turned very somber. She very much wanted to hug a dog now. "But she’s very comfortable at home, I'm sure!"

"A dog," he said. "An intelligent breed, no less. Their loyalty is easy to earn, but to harness their full potential takes a dedicated and powerful master. Of what feats is your minion capable?"

She found herself mentally running down the list, trying to pad it out a bit; was it too dishonest to include the basic obedience training that she hadn’t done herself? As a little girl with a new dog, of course she’d been delighted to train Diana to sit up, and beg, and not to eat the treat balanced on her nose until she was given the word, and things like that. "Of course she can sit and stay and all that..."

It was impossible not to get animated, talking about her pet to a very interested audience. They'd wandered from one end of the festival to the other by the time she'd finished, and crossed paths with both Pekoyama and Kuzuryuu (sharing takoyaki and looking intriguingly comfortable with each other) and Komaeda (who gave them a vague smile and waved the paw of his enormous teddy bear at them; he must have won it somehow. Luck probably overcame any rigged carnival games.) 

"And she wasn't a Himalayan, but we did have a cat, too," she concluded. "But there's no training a cat." 

"Indeed. They may deign to cooperate with a human for a time, should it amuse them to do so, but never to accept orders. But felines, alas, are incompatible with my goals."

"I suppose they wouldn't get along well with the Devas," she said. Though in his version, the cat probably had more to fear from the hamsters than the other way around. That brought another question to mind. "I hope I'm not offending you by eating squid and so on," she said. Especially relevant since the skewers of chicken also smelled very appetizing.

"To devour a _kraken_ is to claim some measure of its strength for your own!" He gestured with a hamster in each hand — he clearly felt strongly in favor of seafood. "Simple domesticated beasts, with no fighting spirit or resistance to their fate — there is little to be gained from consuming _their_ flesh." 

"I think mostly what I'd gain is a delicious snack," she said, and she was delighted to see him smile.

"As you say, Dark Princess. Lead the way to our next destination!" 

He didn't have any objection to her chicken skewer, it seemed, though for his part, he next purchased an ear of roasted corn. "Have you no desire to challenge the many trials of skill and chance at this dark bacchanal?" he asked her, as they passed the same ring toss where she'd split off from Nanami and Souda earlier. 

"Not really. Perhaps it's different in Japan, but in my country, it's generally understood that these games are rigged." 

"Indeed." He eyed the ring toss booth suspiciously. "I thought I sensed malign intent when we arrived."

"Oh, I don't know if it's malign. Everyone needs to make a living! But I don't really need any stuffed toys or anything." Or handheld game systems; she'd already purchased her own so she could play with Nanami, but she'd been surprised to see such high-value items among the prizes at a few booths. "One thing I have been curious about, though..."

 

The goldfish scooping game was one of the first things Sonia had hoped to see when Nanami suggested the class outing to the festival, but she'd been so caught up in talking to Tanaka that she'd barely noticed when they'd passed it; it was at the other end of the festival path again, but he'd gotten so fired up when she mentioned it that he obviously didn't mind retracing their steps. 

"No _true_ sorcerer should be without a familiar!" he declaimed as they walked. "While these denizens of the aquatic plane may be low in level compared to your hellhound or the feline familiar you described, we must never neglect the opportunity to obtain new minions!" 

"I'm not really sure how the game is played, though," she said. "And I worry that it's not very kind to the fish?"

He subsided a little at that. "You speak truth, Dark Princess. No doubt many of these sea creatures fare poorly in the hands of the children who claim them. But my powers grant us the opportunity to liberate some number to a higher purpose than merely decorating some goldfish bowl in some mundane bedroom! We would be remiss to ignore this opportunity!"

"That's very true! And it would be nice to have some kind of a pet." And she'd have much better luck keeping goldfish in her dorm than a cat or dog, though Tanaka had full permission to keep any animals he chose. Maybe if she adopted a puppy, or a rabbit or something, he could keep it even if she couldn't? And she'd just have to visit him every day to see the rabbit. Wouldn't that be a shame. Yes, she'd definitely let herself be talked into additional familiars if he decided to persuade her.

But for now, goldfish. And little plastic scoops lined with paper, like a tiny, flimsy tennis racket. "Move slowly and cautiously," he said, "until your prey is within your grasp, and then strike!" 

"I'll try..." she said. 

"You need to get all the paper wet," the man running the stall said. "If only part of it gets wet, it'll tear."

"I see. And then I move the fish into that bowl?"

"You got it," he said, with a broad smile, but the paper began to tear the moment Sonia got it under a fish, and there was a distinct hole in it by the time she'd shifted the fish into the bowl. She looked at it woefully.

"Fear not! The battle has only begun!" Tanaka said.

"He's right," the attendant said. "I think. But you don't have to give up until the paper's all gone. Give it another shot."

"Very well!" She pushed up the sleeves of her yukata -- not well, as they immediately fell back into position, but it was more of a psychological thing anyway -- and returned her focus to the fish. The next one took most of her paper with it, but at least it landed in the bowl. 

"I don't think I'm very good at this game," she said.

"Nah, you're doing just fine!" the attendant said. "But it does look like you're done right now."

"It's probably for the best. I can buy a small aquarium."

"Your technique does require refinement," Tanaka said. "But you grasp the fundamentals already. Watch and learn, oh student!"

"Not yet you don't," the attendant said. "I need to get these little guys into a bag for the young lady."

 

Sonia wasn't certain she _learned_ much from watching Tanaka's performance with the goldfish, but it was definitely impressive. He seemed to flick the fish into their receptacle like lightning, despite the slow approach of the paddle through the water, and by the fifth fish he was cackling outright. They gained a small audience of interested children as he collected over a dozen fish, finally losing the paper in his paddle to a large fish that thrashed at the moment the paddle left the water. "A ferocious and worthy opponent," Tanaka observed, to a smattering of applause from Sonia and the children. "I had not expected such a fine battle this night."

"That was amazing, Forbidden One-san!" she exclaimed. "I knew you'd save more of them than I could!" 

"If you desire another round, Madam Himalayan..." He stood, straightening his yukata carefully, and then rearranging his scarf.

"No, no, I don't want to take on more than I can care for properly." She lifted the bag to look at her two fish. "I must buy them an aquarium. They don't do well in a simple bowl, do they?"

"Again, you demonstrate your wisdom." Tanaka retrieved a hamster from his obi and placed it atop his head, then reached out to accept a bag of goldfish from the attendant. And then a second bag. They looked rather crowded in there, Sonia thought.

"But a bowl must suffice for tonight," he continued, as they rejoined the festival's foot traffic. "They require more room than these paltry bags provide." As he flourished one of his bags, a hamster ran down his arm toward it. Without thinking, Sonia reached out to scoop it up; she had a free hand and he didn't, after all.

He made a sort of strangled gasp. "There you go," she said, depositing it on top of his head, and the other, larger hamster. "Back home. Forbidden One-san, are you all right? They aren't going to fight, are they?"

"To touch one of the Dark Devas of Destruction and live— Madonna of Darkness, your nascent powers beggar the imagination!"

He must not be worried about hamster battles on top of his head, then. "Oh, that's sweet of you! But I really didn't touch him for very long. It would be nice to be able to hold one of your hamsters, though. They're so cute!" He still had a bit of a strangled look, so she added, "For terrible demon creatures, I mean."

"Soon, no doubt. Soon your strength will be more than equal to— But I must not say too much."

She wasn't completely sure how to respond to that, so she said instead, "It's getting late. We should probably move on to meet up with the others, shouldn't we?"

"Verily, the midnight hour approaches, and ghosts and demons walk. Our comrades no doubt await us with rising wrath."

"Oh, I don't think it's quite _that_ late..." She fished her cell phone out of her obi. "We're supposed to meet up in about twenty minutes? But my feet do hurt a bit. I'm not used to geta."

"Then let us make haste to the appointed park bench! We must claim a seat for you before any others dare approach!"

"That does sound nice," she said, though she wasn't a huge fan of the way he'd quickened his pace to make good on that plan. She'd really rather walk a bit more slowly and let someone else take a seat if they wanted.

"Forbidden One-san, I have a request."

He came to a halt, so she did as well, turning to face him. "Speak," he said. 

"Will you come with me tomorrow to shop for an aquarium and supplies for these fish? I want to make sure I take good care of them."

"If you seek my companionship — very well, Dark Princess. I shall accompany you, unto the gates of hell and many fathoms beneath the sea!" 

"Wonderful! I'm sure you already have all the equipment you need to take care of your fish, but I know I don't have anything." She gestured with her head in the direction of the park bench, and they began walking again. 

"I have sufficient supplies for a time, but this errand will serve my purposes as well. I admire your foresight, Golden One."

She liked that one. She might even have blushed a little, though certainly not as much as he had, earlier. "Thank you," she said. "I trust your expertise, and I'd much rather have your input when I buy anything. And I'd just like to—" To spend more time with you, she'd been about to say. She was getting a bit too close to babbling for comfort. "Thank you for spending time with me tonight. I enjoyed myself tremendously."

At least she could make him blush, too, and turtle back into his scarf. "It... ah... I..."

"Sonia-san!" What perfect timing. Souda. Tanaka must have noticed her wince.

"Your pink-haired companion has exquisite timing," he said in a low tone.

"Doesn't he, though." But she turned, to give Souda a practiced smile and wait for him to catch up.

"Sonia-san! I've been looking all over for you! Were you with _Tanaka_ all this time?"

"Silence, cur!" Tanaka snapped, but Sonia had another approach in mind.

"Yes, I was," she said serenely. "We had a lovely time getting to know each other better."

"Sonia-san...." He sounded so pitiful, but she knew that the moment she took pity on him he'd be right back to not listening to a word she said. 

"Indeed," Tanaka said, clearly taking her cue. "The experience was a pleasure throughout, and thoroughly enlightening." And if he was blushing, he was still managing to hold his head high above his scarf.

Souda might have sniffled. Sonia, on the other hand, saw her goal before her, and sped up to claim a spot on the park bench. 

 

It took some time for the whole class to accumulate at the meeting spot. The boys bristled at each other for a time, but the arrival of Saionji and Koizumi helped distract them all, if only because Saionji was only too happy to needle Souda. She'd somehow obtained a rather sinister-looking stuffed bird-creature roughly the size of her whole upper body, though it was still dwarfed by Komaeda's teddy bear. Or what had formerly been Komaeda's teddy bear; it had somehow ended up in Tsumiki's possession, which seemed to cause Saionji some serious irritation. 

Nanami had a bag at her side full of her own loot; she'd apparently won several game cartridges at ring-toss and shooting games. Pekoyama had obtained a Sunny Witch ♪ Esper Itou-chan mask, to Sonia's delight, and Ibuki had a mask of some red sentai character Sonia didn't recognize. 

Once Nanami had run through the headcount and they all began trudging towards the train station, Sonia found herself falling in next to her friend again. "Did you and Tanaka have fun?" Nanami asked, her voice low. Possibly to avoid setting Souda off, but possibly just because Nanami was always a bit quiet.

"We did!" Sonia said happily. It was hard to keep the volume down when you were excited and pleased. "I got a chance to play the goldfish-scooping game, and we talked about pets, and dark powers, and I got to hold one of his hamsters for a little while." She thought that could sound like innuendo, but maybe not in Japanese. 

Nanami didn't smirk or anything, at least, just smiled. "I'm glad," she said. "You've been wanting to talk to him for a while, haven't you?"

"Was it that obvious?" 

"Just a guess. You seemed like you'd have a lot in common. And you really liked that otome game with the vampires and demons."

Especially that one hero with the heterochromia and the white streak in his hair. "I suppose it was that obvious." Though Tanaka the Forbidden One was more or less the opposite of a suave and seductive demon. "I hope he enjoyed himself, too. He said he did."

"Mmm," Nanami said, and Sonia felt a flash of guilt; Nanami had been quiet about it, but Sonia knew there was a boy who'd disappeared on her without warning, and that Nanami still went to wait for him every day anyway. But before Sonia could say anything else, Nanami said, "I have to hang back and make sure everyone gets on the train."

"I'll save a seat for you," Sonia said. 

"That's optimistic," Nanami replied, but Sonia didn't think to ask what she meant.

 

The train was packed with tired festival-goers, but Sonia had found that she could usually obtain seats if she put her mind to it, and she secured a spot for them at the end of one car, with Tsumiki and the giant bear on one side of her, and Nanami on the other. 

It was a long, quiet ride back. Sonia could never get used to how _quiet_ everyone was on trains and subways in Japan, though to be fair, she hadn't had many outings on public transit anywhere else in the world. As the girls on either side of her dozed, she made a point of watching Tanaka, smiling whenever he looked her way. He'd look away, and she'd look out the window for a time, then look back and catch him glancing at her.

It was so silly, a middle-school game, but it was still cute, especially since he seemed to be new to it. He kept blushing, at least. 

 

When they finally left the quiet train, they filed back towards the dorms in near silence, broken only by the occasional yawn or murmured exchange Sonia couldn't make out. Her fish continued circling in their little bag, seeming untroubled; she wondered if Tanaka remembered his offer of a stopgap bowl, or if she could find one somewhere in the school. She'd have to do some searching once they arrived back in their rooms — physical searching and online, since she knew nothing about the care of fish.

But as they entered the dorms, she heard him say, "Halt, she-cat."

From what Sonia saw, that stopped about half the girls, and Koizumi said "Excuse me?"

"Not you," he said, sounding impatient. "The Princess of Darkness."

"Oh. Sonia." Sonia beamed at them both, pleased that Koizumi recognized his meaning immediately as well. 

"What is it, Forbidden One-san?"

"Your new minions require a temporary home. Their current prison will not serve them well through the night."

"Yes, I was just thinking that!" She vaguely noticed the others moving on. "And we were talking about going out tomorrow?"

She also vaguely heard a distressed noise that was probably Souda, but it served him right for eavesdropping. 

"Naturally! Although the creatures of the deep are not my forte, I know of a lesser mage who will set you up in _fine_ style! We shall obtain a glass chamber fit for _Poseidon himself_ to house your familiars!"

"Wonderful! It's a date, then!"

"And their temporary facilities?"

"Can you bring them to my room? If it's not too much trouble."

That got her a couple of gasps, and Tanaka himself went pink. It was only then that she remembered that her classmates seemed very old-fashioned about having a boy in a girl's room, or vice versa. And apparently she had a few spectators. But no matter. She saw no harm in making her intentions clear. "Or I could go to yours," she added.

"No need! I... shall bring the supplies as you command!" He took off with what Sonia considered undue haste, but he was embarrassed. She hoped he'd forgive her. 

It was hard to feel too much shame for it, though, when she turned to go to her own room and got two thumbs-up and a broad wink from Ibuki.


End file.
